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MLS Playoffs

Real Salt Lake got the Western Conference Championship series off to a good start on Sunday night, toppling the Portland Timbers 4-2 at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Here are a few interesting numbers from Sunday’s win:

1

Sunday’s game was the first Sunday home game in Real Salt Lake’s nine-year history. Despite the unique nature of a Sunday home game in Utah and the short turnaround following last Thursday’s Western Conference Semifinal second leg win over LA, RSL fans came out in full force on Sunday night, with 17,333 raucous supporters filling Rio Tinto Stadium to near capacity.

10

With Sunday’s victory, RSL broke Portland’s 10-game unbeaten streak in all competitions. The Timbers’ last loss prior to Sunday also came against the Claret-and-Cobalt, with RSL topping the Cascadia side by an identical 4-2 score line on Aug. 30 at Rio Tinto Stadium.

9

Sunday’s win extended RSL’s unbeaten streak over Portland to nine games in all competitions. The Claret-and-Cobalt is 6-1-3 all-time against the Timbers, posting a 3-0-2 record against the Oregon side in MLS and Open Cup play in 2013. Of the Timbers seven defeats in all competitions in 2013, three of them have been against RSL.

2

Real Salt Lake defender Chris Schuler scored in the 35th minute of Sunday’s win, heading home a Javier Morales corner kick to tie the game 1-1. It was the second goal in as many games for Schuler, who volleyed home a Morales set piece in extra time of Thursday’s Western Conference Semifinal second leg win over LA. Prior to Thursday’s match, the 26-year-old Schuler had two goals in his entire career.

13

RSL’s four goal output on Sunday night gave the Claret-and-Cobalt 13 goals in five meetings against Portland in all competitions this year. That’s good for 2.6 goals per game – or 1.62 goals per game higher than Portland’s 0.97 regular season goals against average.

3

RSL maestro Javier Morales had a goal and two assists last night, giving him three goals and three assists in four games against the Timbers this season. Morales has one goal and three assist for RSL this postseason. He is one of nine different RSL players to score against Portland this year and one of seven different RSL players to notch an assist over the Timbers this season.

1

Portland has been fantastic at home this season, posting a 14-1-5 mark at JELD-WEN Field in regular season, playoff and Open Cup action. The Timbers’ lone home loss came all the way back on March 9, when they fell to Montreal in just their second home game of the season. While Portland has been dominant at home, RSL has acquitted itself nicely at JELD-WEN Field. The Claret-and-Cobalt went 0-0-2 in Portland this season and were the only team to take two positive results out of Oregon this season. RSL is 1-1-2 all-time at Portland.

ABC 4's Real Sports Live has done a fantastic job of covering Real Salt Lake's run through the playoffs, going live with extended coverage from StubHub Center last week after the first leg of RSL's Western Conference Semifinal series against LA and again following Sunday night's West Championship first leg against Portland at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Check out video of Real Sports Live's postgame coverage of Sunday's win over Portland below. The show airs every Sunday night at 10:35 p.m. MT on ABC 4.

We’ve been a bit focused on the Western Conference Championship series around these parts, but there’s a big battle going on in the East, too – and it starts today.

Fourth-seeded Houston Dynamo will host second-seeded Sporting Kansas City today in the first leg of the Eastern Conference Championship series at 12:30 p.m. MT at BBVA Compass Stadium. The match will be broadcast live on NBC.

RSL fans should be rooting for Houston to take the series, as a RSL-Dynamo MLS Cup would be played at Rio Tinto Stadium while a Claret-and-Cobalt-Kansas City MLS Cup would be played on the road at Sporting Park.

Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis was asked in his press conference following Thursday's Western Conference Semifinal win over LA what the Rio Tinto Stadium crowd needs to bring in Sunday's Western Conference Championship first leg against Portland.

Here's what he had to say:

“I think for me it’s pretty simple. We need to be here early – there needs to be that really raucous singing of the song “Believe” at the beginning of the match. I thought that was spectacular today how noisy it was. And just to carry that energy and to continue to believe. We tell our players all the time that no matter what happens in the game, we continue to work hard, we continue to stay together and we continue to believe. If you do those three things, something in the end will happen right.”

LA Galaxy trends toward a less creative midfield, and even from the flanks this is largely the case. This provides a platform for three or four attacking players to showcase their abilities in tonight's Western Conference Semifinal second leg, and when your primary attacking pair is Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, there's plenty of that. But with the opponent in a more defensive midfield, RSL will have an opportunity to utilize their creative midfield to attempt a breakthrough.

Midfield creativity

Javier Morales will look toward finding the gaps between the midfield and the defense, which inevitably pushes back the LA Galaxy midfield a bit too as they attempt to cover his movement. This opens up space in other places, which proves vital. He'll also be important for set pieces, but our reluctancy to capitalize on set pieces won't help us there. He may instead look to go directly at goal with free kicks, and who could blame him? He's scored some screamers.

Sebastian Velasquez is likely to step into Ned Grabavoy's spot on the left, and this will give him room to make diagonal runs to and away from the flanks. He'll need to capitalize in spaces vacated by Morales as he embarks on runs with and without the ball.

Luis Gil will be tasked with a bit more defensive work than usual in Grabavoy's absence, but he too will need to embark on runs. With Tony Beltran to his right, he'll be involved in plenty of interchanges with the fullback as they look to move the ball forward from the right.

Balanced play

Kyle Beckerman will need to be as aware as ever but eminently willing to capitalize on opportunities to break forward. His passing is never in question, and that'll be vital tonight.

Tony Beltran, as above, will need to work with Luis Gil on the right flank to move the ball forward, but he'll also need to make those overlapping runs on the right side to be effective. But beyond that, he'll have to be ready to burst back in defense. He showed incredibly well against Landon Donovan last weekend, and he'll almost surely have to do so again.

Chris Schuler will, with any luck, not be forced into so many last-ditch tackles and clearances. Instead, we'll be hoping for some balance from Schuler as he steps forward to make an interception before splaying the ball to a full back.

Attacking options

Alvaro Saborio pushes the side forward in important ways, but his biggest role will be in helping the midfield transition into the attack. It's a role that is masked by his goalscoring contributions (which are equally important and follow as a result of this play) — his distributive properties may not lead to high-percentage passing, but he is a chance creator.

His mystery partner remains in question. Robbie Findley offers speed, which is an obviously important factor, but he also offers a willingness to track back and at pace. Joao Plata, on the other hand, offers more finesse in attack but less counterattacking opportunity. In most factors, they end up at about sixes. Olmes Garcia offers a more mysterious option, but it's hard to see him starting, as he hasn't made the bench for the last few matches.

Real Salt Lake will be without one of its most prominent players in Thursday's Western Conference Semifinal second leg, as midfielder Ned Grabavoy will miss the match due to a left hamstring strain picked up in Sunday's 1-0 first leg loss at LA.

RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis told media on Wednesday that Grabavoy will not play due to the injury. The veteran midfielder left Sunday's match in the 61st minute after picking up the knock earlier in the match.

Grabavoy had a career year in the 2013 regular season, scoring five goals and tallying five assists in 32 appearances - 29 of which were starts - for the Claret-and-Cobalt. Look for Sebastian Velasquez to be a candidate to replace Grabavoy in the starting lineup on Thursday.

This is likely old hat for most of you, but - just in case - we wanted to outline the scenarios that will see RSL advance past the second leg of the Western Conference Semifinals at Rio Tinto Stadium on Thursday.

Here we go. RSL will advance past LA and into the Western Conference Final against either Portland or Seattle with:

A win by two or more goals after 90 minutes on Thursday night

A win by one goal in regulation on Thursday, followed by:

Winning outright after completion of the two, 15-minute extra time periods

Winning a penalty kick shootout, should extra time end with the sides still tied

The Claret-and-Cobalt's season will end on Thursday with any other outcome.

The winner of the RSL-LA Western Conference Semifinal will advance to the Western Conference Final against the winner of the Portland-Seattle semi. The Timbers lead the Sounders 2-1 after last Saturday's first leg; Portland will host Seattle in the decisive second leg at 9:00 p.m. MT on Thursday. The two-legged Western Conference Final series will begin this Sunday, Nov. 10, with the lower remaining seed hosting the first leg.